1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to golf bags and more particularly to golf bags with a plurality of dividers to keep golf clubs separated and prevent contact with other clubs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional golf bags have variously sized and shaped dividers at the top opening of the bag for the purpose of separating and dividing the golf clubs. Typically these dividers tend to divide only the entrance to the bag, allowing the club shafts within the bag to move about freely and become entangled with and contact each other. Once the clubs are entangled they become difficult to remove, and can cause damage to the club shaft and/or grip. Golf club shafts made from expensive lightweight composite are especially susceptible to damage by contacting other clubs.
Prior golf bags have three or four openings with full-length dividers. These numbers of openings are not enough, requiring at least three clubs per opening, which can still allow club shafts to entangle and become damaged. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,278 to Gretz, and entitled xe2x80x9cGolf Bag with Adhesively Secured Divider Panels and Adhesively Secured Tubular Body,xe2x80x9d discloses a golf bag with divider panels adhesively secured within the cylindrical tubular body. This golf bag has only five compartments for a full set of fourteen clubs to share.
Yet, other golf bags have attempted individual compartments for each golf club. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,112 to Kim, and entitled xe2x80x9cGolf Bag with Inserted Symmetrical Full Length Divider,xe2x80x9d discloses a two-tube construction with a series of inner portions made up of soft cloth interior sewn along the axial length of the more rigid tubular exterior. U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,320 to Wang, and entitled xe2x80x9cMethod of Forming a Golf Bag Insert,xe2x80x9d discloses a method for constructing a soft fabric insert for golf bags with partitions for golf clubs. These cloth dividers are difficult to fabricate and are not easily shaped to be space efficient.
Other golf bags separate the individual clubs using a series of elongated tubular members, which span the entire length of the bag. A shortcoming of this type of divider system is that the openings for the individual clubs are relatively small and too close together. It requires precise alignment of the grip end of the club before a club may be inserted back into the bags. If the tubular members are not secured to the golf bag, they can be pulled out unintentionally when removing golf clubs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,283 to Rader, and entitled xe2x80x9cDevice for Supporting and Protecting Golf Clubs,xe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,388 to King, and entitled xe2x80x9cPolygonally Shaped Golf Club Shaft Protector,xe2x80x9d disclosed a plurality of elongated protective tubes of plastic material and the like. A major drawback of plastic tubes is that they can be easily kinked and leave a permanent crease, which can rub against club shafts during transport and induce wear to the shafts, especially graphite shafts. Furthermore, the wear problem can occur at any point where there is repeated rubbing with plastic, especially at the club entry end of the tubes.
Other general shortcomings of golf bag structures and in particular golf bag dividers with the openings too close to each other are that they permit the iron heads of the shorter clubs to impact the hosel and shaft areas of the clubs in the adjacent row, thereby inflicting damage to them. This is particularly critical with the advent of the more sophisticated graphite shafts where the shaft coating is made of materials that can be easily damaged. Constant wear caused by the other golf clubs often results in damage to the shafts or to the paint coating, thereby producing an unsightly and distracting area on the shaft visible to a golfer using the club.
Today""s golfer needs a lightweight bag which offers the maximum protection of individual clubs. A golf bag with a partitioning system, which can prevent club entanglement, provides ease of locating, retrieving and replacing golf clubs, and does not significantly increase the weight of the golf bag is desirable.
The present invention provides a golf bag assembly which overcomes the foregoing problems. As discussed in detail below, the golf clubs are individually contained and protected in lightweight fabric-lined plastic or fabric tubes. These tubes are encapsulated within the apertures in the upper collar. The apertures are spaced to maintain the clubs at a prescribed arrangement within the bag resulting in a club-separating system which prevents club entanglement, minimizes club head engagement, provides ease of locating, retrieving and replacing golf clubs, and is space-efficient and does not significantly increase the weight of the golf bag.
The present invention relates to a golf bag with individual club-separating compartments. The present invention encompasses a golf bag with a club-separating honeycomb-like cell structure, i.e., resembling a mass of cells built by bees to store their honey. This structure may be constructed utilizing thin-wall semi-rigid plastic round tubing lined with a soft fabric material to create individual chambers for each club. The tubing separates and protects the shafts of the golf clubs from contacting one another. The distal ends of the tubing are coupled to a collar consisting of multiple openings arranged in a honeycomb-like or staggered pattern. The openings in the collar are of the shapes of elongated diamonds, hexagons, octagons, ovals or the like. The opposite ends of the tubing are confined by the base of the golf bag. The resulting structure of the present invention enables a space efficient and orderly arrangement of the golf clubs.
The method for constructing the golf bag with the club separating honeycomb compartments provides for a simple and effective use of readily available thin-wall round tubing lined with a soft fabric arranged into a space efficient configuration. The utilization of thin-wall tubing with ends flexible enough to be stretched to the shape of individual cavities of the collar allows the coupling of the tubing to the collar.
Alternatively, lightweight fabric tubes create individual cells for each club, to separate and protect the shafts of the golf clubs from contacting one another. The receiving ends of tubes are encapsulated within the openings of the collar, which consist of multiple hexagonal- or octagonal-shaped openings arranged in a predetermined pattern. The opposite ends of these tubes are confined by the slotted base plate, which is held spaced apart from the collar by support rods. This cell structure of collar, support rods, fabric tubes and slotted base plate make up the internal structure of the golf bag.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a golf bag to keep separate individual golf club shafts and protect them from damage when positioned therein.
A further object of this invention is to provide a golf bag with clubs arranged in a space-efficient manner to allow for ease of club insertion and removal.
A further object of this invention is to provide a lightweight golf bag with individual club-separating chambers.
A further object of this invention is to provide arranged golf club-separating tubing in a honeycomb-like or staggered configuration.
A further object of this invention is to provide coupling of round tubing to shaped receptacles such as a diamond, a hexagon or an oval.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a method of coupling soft fabric tubes to an upper collar and lower base plate to form a cell structure.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings.